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Domino's Cheese Crunch pizza and Custard Bliss review

The review might be biased because I have a soft corner, soft edges and soft volume for pizza. I had a cute crush on this cute girl. We had been talking for a while but didn't hangout ever. One day I forgot the keys of my flat at office. So, I had to wait till my flatmate arrived. So I called this girl and asked if you would like to go to domino's with me. She obliged. Years later, suddenly it came to our conversation and she says, "you are smooth". Surprised me asked, "Of course. Thank you. Could you elaborate with an example?" She responds, "people find parties where both are invited, go to common hangouts, house parties. You call on a date like a boss!". I argued for 30 minutes, "I called you on a pizza not a date. Pizza is pizza. Pizza is pious. Pizza need not be a date. Wait, nothing bad about a pizza date though".

Random Call: Sir, in association with ________ we would like to invite you to a wine tasting session. Would you like to...

Domino's sent us a cheesy invite to be a part of their bliss in sharing their two latest products - Double Cheese Crunch pizza and Custard Bliss dessert. It ended up being far more eventful than talking about two products. People love athletes biting their medals, entertainers lifting up oscars, getting their tongues onto delicate pizzas. Everyone does. Is that all? Nothing succeeds like success. Wins are boring, if you ask me. Perfection is almost repulsive. The roundness of earth, the letters in your handwriting, twins, nothing is perfect. Practise makes a man perfect. You sensed it right. There could be a million wrongs before one perfect comes out. I love reading the papers torn for that final poem. Her "yes" won't be exciting if there were no noes(don't try this, ladies). Remember the spider that climbed and fell 16 times before it reached the top? Failures make success delicious.

So before a pizza comes out on your table, do you wonder what all goes behind the curtains? Data Scientists/Decision Scientists! Prepare yourself for a datagasm. Before any dish is rolled out to a complete market, it goes through following filters:

It has to be tasty

Very tasty

It should be quick to prepare. (so that people don't ask if you are making a pizza or growing crops)

It should be space efficient (cranes and bulldozers are not usually appreciated at pizzerias, kids might ask for a ride you see)

Even if it is operationally viable, it cannot hit the table till it is proven to be commercially viable

Does it cannibalize? (It should not make people eat people) The new pizza should not eat into sales of old pizza. If it does, it should improve the bottom line

It goes through a test control method. Test and control stores are identified. The test store is very similar to its test store. So when you introduce a new pizza in a test store. You can compare how it augments sales in comparison to control store. If it shows a statistically significant increase in sales it might be added to menu.

It should be consistent to have it, take-away and delivery.

It should be consistent across all stores (very tricky)

It must touch your heart

I managed to complete the count to 10(yay). Before we headed to taste, Mr. Murugan Narayanaswamy Senior Vice President Marketing at Domino's Pizza walked us through the Domino's India journey. How the marketing campaigns changed - "hungry kya", "yeh hai rishton ka time", "yeh hai rishton ki home delivery"? How the assortment changed from high end pizzas to sub-50 bucks items? How free delivery brought a huge inflection in the history of Domino's pizza? It was enriching particularly for me, because coming from a decision science a.k.a. Business Analysis environment, I relish when eateries take data driven decisions. When marketing has a clear callouts like "Hey we deliver pizza in 30 minutes" or "we serve a pizza for 50 bucks", the end consumer responds. It could be positive or negative but you at least have given escape velocity from the planet full of generics. I learned that Domino's did that big time.

For the first time I walked into a domino's kitchen while in conversation with Chef Narendra Singh Jaravta, Head Chef at Domino’s Pizza. We learned from him how each individual in the kitchen goes through rigourous training. In order to ensure that each pizza has correct volume of toppings, every morning chefs calibrate their handfuls to different quantities. It reminded me of the movie Aankhen (2002) Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal walked with feet tied with a rope of specific length to ensure consistency in step distance. But everything can't be quantified in cooking. So I asked,"Do preparation methods change with kitchens across the country with such enormous difference in temperature, altitude, humidity etc.?". He responds, "it does, chefs are good enough to take care of that".

Finally coming to the review of the three course meal. Zingy parcel veg is certainly a delight. Your tongue senses two textures one of the crispy crust the other of the tender cheese embracing pieces of paneer. It does not need any dips or ketchup. It is fabulous. Then came the amalgamation of thin crust and cheese crust, Double Cheese Crunch pizza.

I am much bigger fan of cheese crust than thin ones. So my review is biased in that regard. This pizza is like an oreo biscuit or an ice-cream sandwich. It has molten cheese between two thin crusts. I loved the cheese no doubt. The crust could have been crispier and flakier. Toppings are customizable like any other domino's pizza, so your pallette is the limit.

Finally, Custard Bliss dessert is an amalgamation of pizza crust and hot custard, more like those gooey donuts. Eating the crust was hard work. I am not a fan of donuts but the kid inside me still liked the custard filling. Sprinkled with finely powdered cardamom sugar, it is only as sweet as it should be. Go ahead and give these a try these #dominosdelights and let me know what do you feel.